FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 2, 2022
CONTACT: Melissa McCleery, melissa@onrosehill.com, 484-201-3778
PHILADELPHIA – With Asian American voters poised to play a deciding role in Pennsylvania’s midterm elections including in races for a new Governor and US Senator, former Trump staff have launched deceitful, racist, hateful mailers and digital ads aimed at suppressing the turnout of Asian voters.
The Asian American vote in Pennsylvania is the largest it has ever been at 250,000+ and growing consistently in both size and power. Asian Americans are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the US and make up 45% of newly naturalized citizens in Pennsylvania, and will play a significant role in determining Pennsylvania’s next Senator and Governor.
Facts about Asian voters in Pennsylvania from API PA’s voter analysis:
- 75% of eligible Asian American voters cast a ballot in 2020 (up more than 13 percentage points from 61.54% in 2016 and 57.1% in 2012), an unexpected doubling in turnout that contributed significantly to Biden’s 80,000 vote win margin
- 50% of Asian American voters in Pennsylvania requested mail-in ballots in 2020, the highest percentage for any community, and Asian American voters had the 2nd highest vote by mail return rate of any community in PA
The Asian Pacific Islander Political Alliance (API PA) has knocked more than 120,000 doors and made more than 2.25 million phone calls in 15 languages to Asian American voters across the state. At least 15,000 of those phone calls were fully in the voter’s non-English language (crucial outreach, as 78% of Asian Pennsylvanians speak a language other than English at home).
API PA’s landmark language-accessible and culturally-competent voter outreach program results in a very high contact and conversion rate: At a recent phone bank by South Asians contacting South Asians, 90% of undecided voters committed to voting for API PA’s candidates by the end of the call.
Said Mohan Seshadri, Executive Director of Asian Pacific Islander Political Alliance (API PA):
“Asian American voters have massive power in Pennsylvania, and that power has rattled Republicans so much that they’re lobbing race-baiting misinformation at our people, trying to deceive and manipulate Asian American voters. Our folks have overcome many barriers to vote, and we’re combating these bad-faith politics by talking to tens of thousands of our voters, knocking hundreds of thousands of doors, and making millions of calls, speaking to voters in their language and making sure our folks have the facts they need to vote. Just like in 2020, when 75% of eligible Asian voters cast a vote, our ballots will do the talking.”
Said Wei Chen, Philadelphia Chinese community leader and co-founder of API PA:
“Chinese Americans and other immigrants are the future of this country and our city, and we’ve helped our community overcome language barriers and misinformation in order to vote. Exploiting the pain Republicans caused our Chinese and Asian community by weaponizing COVID and stirring up violence is a loser’s move and it won’t fly on our watch. Asian voters are smart, supported, and have the facts to see through this scam.”
Said City Councilmember Helen Gym:
“There’s a reason these bad faith actors are trying to suppress the AAPI vote — because they know our community and our voice will turn out in favor of defending freedoms, voting rights, and healthcare on November 8. It was this organization and group of leaders that drove turnout in record numbers in 2020 to elect Democrats up and down the ballot, and we will be doing everything possible this year when so much is on the line. We will not allow race-baiting white supremacists to dictate or sway our community from ensuring justice prevails on Election Day.”
Said State Senator Nikil Saval:
“Asian American and Pacific Islander voters are increasingly organized, vocal, and powerful. It’s depressing and unfortunate, if not surprising, that Republicans want to mislead and suppress the votes of this enormous constituency. API PA’s landmark efforts to mobilize Asian voters is critical to defeating GOP voter suppression and ensuring that our democracy better represents all of our communities.”
The digital ads and mailings are part of a coordinated campaign by the American First Legal Foundation, founded by Trump staffer Stephen Miller, who was the architect behind the Trump Administration’s family separation program, which led to widespread images of kids in cages that shocked the nation. Outside of Pennsylvania, mailers have been received in Arizona, Virginia, California, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Texas over the past week and digital and radio advertisements have also popped up across the country.
In 2020, API PA signed up more than 1,400 Asian Americans to volunteer and made 1.3 million calls to voters in PA, about half of which were to sign Asian voters up to vote by mail. API PA made an additional 55,000 in-language persuasion and GOTV calls to low-English proficiency Asian voters.
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The Asian Pacific Islander Political Alliance’s (API PA) mission is to build long-term power for APIs in Pennsylvania, by coordinating political, electoral, and legislative work to hold our elected officials accountable, engaging in culturally competent and linguistically accessible direct voter contact with our communities, and building solidarity with other aligned communities of color across the state.
API PA is part of the Asian American Power Network, the leading coalition of grassroots community organizations working to mobilize AAPI voters and build AAPI political power across the country.
